


Nova "Beedle" Elderitch

by stumphclub



Category: Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Elf, Elf Culture & Customs, Elf/Human Relationship(s), Half-Elves, Harry Potter References, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:00:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22202992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stumphclub/pseuds/stumphclub
Summary: Character backstory for Beedle the Bard





	Nova "Beedle" Elderitch

Nova "Beedle" Elderitch grew up in a quaint forested area with their Elven Elders, living in the boughs of trees near Muskeg areas. 

Their father, Elren, was an Elven council member who canoodled with the wrong woman - a Human. The human mother spent her pregnancy in the village with her partner, and, Upon giving birth, Nova's mother was exiled from the clan by the other council members and Nova was made to stay in the village to be raised by elves, decided by their father. Though the council members were stricken with Elren, they allowed both to stay in the village, though Nova received their fair share of discrimination for being the only Half-Elf in the entire clan. 

As a child, as a result of being outcasted and lonely, they generally had to entertain themselves a lot of the time, and took to finding bugs--Specifically Beetles--in the Muskeg, along with amber, and teaching themselves how to preserve these bugs. They would also take chunks of moss from the foot of their Elder Tree Dwelling, turning them into little balls to carry around with them. Thus the nickname Beedle was born unto Nova, the half-elf who preserved bugs.

Though disliked by others, Beedle's father cared for them deeply and wholly, teaching them a plethora of lore about their ancestry and traditions. They listened to countless facts about beasts, creatures, plants, berries, and more, Elren mentoring them with pride regarding their sage family background. Beedle wasn't an indoorsy type, as Elren knew, and so he took a different approach by gifting Beedle a plant researcher's/traveler's book for their 10th birthday. He requested them to fill it out to the best of their ability whenever they came across a new being in the outdoors. He knew that they would always be able to find common information if it wasn't readily available, and knew that they would be able to actively carry on the sage background and excel at researching nature. 

Their father taught them to play the flute and the lute, the flute an instrument that only their mother knew and taught to their father during her months of pregnancy with Beedle. The Lute was a common instrument played in the Elven village and made Nova feel like they were connected to the tribe in a different sort of way. 

Enter the local Tieflings, causing grief and picking at the children in the village. The Elders on the Council decided something must be done about this and called a meeting with the Tiefling council to discuss a treaty. A poor decision was made by none other than Elren himself, and a small war of vendetta broke out among the village. Not hours later, fires were set by Tieflings among the trees, destroying many Elven homes. As Nova was being carried out of their dwelling by other elderly council members, they caught a glance into the very room where a Tiefling was killing Beedle's father, as was made sure by the Tiefling council. Beedle was young, and knew nothing of treaty discussions, only seeing that these half-breed demons were causing immense turmoil to their people, even if the elves had outcasted Beedle early on. They, therefore, developed racist tendencies as well as a fear of Tieflings and large fires. 

It was shortly after this that Beedle decided they were going to travel--they had lost touch completely with their mother (as made sure of by the Elders), and their father was dead. They quickly stopped feeling sorry for themselves, knowing that to survive they must use all of the sage knowledge bestowed unto them by their father. They waited for things to settle, preparing rations and things needed in order to travel alone for the foreseeable future, all the while running through their catalog of knowledge regarding nature, monsters, things that were and weren't poisonous, how to access clean water at any given time, quick tips on healing wounds, how to pitch a temporary dwelling, and so forth into what would be their most useful possession, their traveler's journal. Beedle went into the outer-world on high alert, always keen and sharply aware of their surroundings. They decided that from this point on, they could only have the capacity to look out for themselves, and would only go out of their way to help others if it benefited them in the process. 

As they began to travel, knowing their village was burned and their parents were out of the picture, they started spinning tales to strangers about who they were, where they came from, and what they were doing, never mentioning their true tale of Elren's grand mistake. They found that people generally believed them and pushed further, testing their deceptiveness to see how much they could truly disguise themselves both visually and verbally, or convince others to believe their lies if need or want be. Early on into the travels, Beedle ran out of rations and water, realizing that they would have to settle somewhere if they didn't figure out a plan, and fast. They started talking to more strangers than ever, either able to persuade a passer-by to donate food, to simply steal food or money while people were looking the other way or, alternatively, so deep in conversation with Beedle that their victims never came to notice their pockets being picked. When Beedle eventually settled into a comfortable lifestyle, they generally continued to tell tales and steal small things from merchants solely for sport.

One of the first meaningful encounters on their travels was surprisingly at one of the many taverns that Beedle had come to enjoy. There were many people susceptible to pick-pockets in an alcoholic watering hole. Nova tended only to keep contact with others strictly "business" related (fellow pick-pockets) in the earlier days of travel, but when they stepped foot into this tavern on the hillside, they were blessed with the most wonderful experience they had had in a long time--A Dwarf named Jorn with his one-good-eye-one-wooden-eye was drunkenly (but skilled nonetheless) playing a set of bagpipes, a foreign instrument which Beedle had never laid eyes on in their life. They approached Jorn, weakly considering stealing from him, but more importantly entranced by the musical instrument that their father had never spoken about during all those stories. They asked Jorn to teach them to play and the drunken Dwarf said "What the hell, you're pretty cute, Darlin'," and was able to teach Beedle how to play the bagpipes within the hour. He commented on how musically gifted they were once they shared their lute with the dwarf, asking if they had Bard Blood because of this talent. Beedle had never gotten insight involving whether or not the class ran in the family, but at that moment decided that their goal upon coming of age was to be a Bard and attend Bard college, whatever it took. 

Beedle spent as many days as possible with Jorn while his traveling Caravan was in town, talking deeply about music, life as a dwarf, what life could be like if Beedle went to Bard school and used their sage ancestry to become a career plant and bug researcher instead of hobbyist, what made them travel in the first place, and how Jorn lost his eye to a pickaxe while working drunk. They kindled a short but strong friendship, somehow never actually learning each other's names. When Jorn left the tavern for the last time, Beedle gifted the dwarf a prized moss ball, and he left Beedle with a parting gift containing a set of bagpipes, and one of his fanciest opal eyes. 

Once Jorn moved on, Beedle decided it was probably time for them to move on as well, and so continued their travels. As they traveled deeper into the mountains they came across a cave that seemed perfect for catching some shut-eye, until they heard a rumble that was most definitely not natural for a cave. When they lit their lantern and turned to find the source of the rumble, they realized they were face to nose with a real-life giant, a race which Nova had never encountered before.

Beedle was prepared to use their persuasive skills to back their way out of the situation, but before they could make any headway, the giant sighed, "It's so good to have some company." 

Shocked, however grateful that they weren't about to be crushed for entering the wrong dwelling, Beedle checked their traveler's guide and made sure to offer the giant rations that most aligned with the giant's taste. Although Beedle missed the mark for a tasty meal, the giant appreciated it nonetheless and began to tell their story over their meal. The giant had once been human, but had crossed the wrong warlock and been cursed to be a giant. As they could no longer live in civilization, the giant had moved to the mountains to live alongside what they considered the friendliest species of giants, the Stone Giants. The giant lived in their own cave and generally left the others alone, and was reciprocated with the same respect. 

The giant allowed Beedle to rest in the cave for a few days, teaching them the giant's language to kill time, and having earnest conversations, those of which the giant had missed so dearly. When Beedle left to continue on their travels, they left the giant with a moss ball, and the giant gifted them a small pressed flower, an art they had been infatuated with ever since it became essentially impossible for the giant to pick up a single flower without crushing it. 

Near the last leg of Beedle's travels, they found themselves in a town surrounded by hills. They frequented whatever local taverns they could find in hopes of possibly once again running into Jorn and picking the max amount of pockets possible in one night without being found out by the masses. Instead of the one-eyed dwarf, however, they ended up witnessing a spectacular scene of the tavern's bartender throwing an eccentric Gnome into the streets, claiming she was extremely close to getting herself banned. Beedle decided to approach the gnome, entertained, and asked if she was okay or if she needed help getting home. 

The gnome proceeded to latch onto Beedle, dragging them to her fat miniature pony hooked up to a mini-wagon, tethered to the backside of the tavern. Beedle was far too large to ride the miniature pony, so they had to cram themselves into the wagon and hold the gnome, Bimp, to keep her from falling head over horse. She gave her horse a hearty squeeze with her heels and told it, "To my Dwelling!". 

Beedle could hardly believe that this would be enough information for the pony, but to their amusement, they ended up at a small hillside dwelling that Bimp seemed familiar with, and therefore figured they must be home. When Beedle extracted themselves from the mini wagon and helped Bimp inside, the little gnome immediately passed out on a lounge chair. Nova was unsure whether to see themselves out or not but, as they had not planned for this and had nowhere in walking distance of this abode to stay for the night, they decided to make themselves comfortable. 

In the morning they awoke to the smell of eggs, opening their eyes to what they hadn't previously noticed, but now saw that Bimp's ceiling was covered in blueprints for inventions, one of which included a flying machine. The gnome seemed to be completely unfazed from the night before, cheerfully bringing Beedle breakfast and brushing it off like having stranger sleepovers was a day-to-day occurrence. As they ate together, Beedle asked about the inventions, namely the flying machine. 

Bimp went on to tell Beedle about how she was a tinkerer by trade and was paid fairly well to fix objects that were currently in existence, but people tended to poke fun at her for trying to invent new things that "couldn't possibly work". She told Beedle about her (seldom) working inventions, her failed inventions, and explained that her dream was to invent the latest and greatest flying machine. So far, she had been unable to take off and land successfully (the landing part being the main issue). 

Always up for an adventure, Beedle asked the eccentric gnome to show them the contraption, which quickly turned into their very own test-run. Needless to say, they were just barely able to take off, whip through the air towards the neighbouring hill and then, the machine really only able to hold a gnome's weight, went down miserably into the side of the hill. Although laughing wildly at the attempt, Beedle could see that Bimp was discouraged. 

They offered to stay with the gnome to try to perfect the flying contraption, working theories between the two of them until they had perfected the machine. Only this time, Beedle made sure it was only Bimp flying in the nimble contraption. Over the course of the weeks, Nova had not only learned how to speak gnomish, but also picked up some extremely basic tinkering skills. When they finally parted after the perfection of the invention, Beedle was gifted with a small tinkering set from Bimp, and in return gave away another moss ball.

After traveling across the continent and meeting an array of strange characters, Beedle finally felt they could return to the forest, finding themselves even missing the greenery despite the fiery trauma they underwent. They found a new area to pitch a semi-permanent dwelling near a small city, planning on doing some honest work along side pick-pocketing to save up for their next trip--they had read somewhere that the best type of moss balls came from the toes of giants and wanted to revisit the mountains to collect their own samples. 

In the mean time, until Beedle could travel again, they were intent on finding themselves an animal companion. They couldn't stop replaying the conversations with Jorn, thinking excitedly about Bard college. 

Between the honest work and scavenging, Beedle spent their free time mulling their traveler's book over and over. Their largest goal was to legitimize their book into something that could be used for genuine research in order to make their sage ancestors proud. They wanted to continue travelling and recording information on all of the new vegetation and creatures they interacted with in order to make their hobby into a career.


End file.
